_#_Flag: three equal horizontal bands of white (top), green, and red; the national emblem formerly on the hoist side of the white stripe has been removed—it contained a rampant lion within a wreath of wheat ears below a red five-pointed star and above a ribbon bearing the dates 681 (first Bulgarian state established) and 1944 (liberation from Nazi control)
_*Economy #_Overview: Growth in the lackluster Bulgarian economy fell to the 2% annual level in the 1980s. By 1990 Sofia's foreign debt had skyrocketed to over $10 billion—giving a debt service ratio of more than 40% of hard currency earnings and leading the regime to declare a moratorium on its hard currency payments. The post-Zhivkov regime faces major problems of renovating an aging industrial plant; coping with worsening energy, food, and consumer goods shortages; keeping abreast of rapidly unfolding technological developments; investing in additional energy capacity (the portion of electric power from nuclear energy reached over one-third in 1990); and motivating workers, in part by giving them a share in the earnings of their enterprises. A major decree of January 1989 summarized and extended the government's economic restructuring efforts, which include a partial decentralization of controls over production decisions and foreign trade. In October 1990 the Lukanov government proposed an economic reform program based on a US Chamber of Commerce study. It was never instituted because of a political stalemate between the BSP and the UDF. The new Popov government launched a similar reform program in January 1991, but full implementation has been slowed by continuing political disputes.
_#_GNP: $47.3 billion, per capita $5,300; real growth rate - 6.0% (1990)
_#_Inflation rate (consumer prices): 100% (1990 est.)
_#_Unemployment rate: 2% (1990 est.)
_#_Budget: revenues $26 billion; expenditures $28 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA billion (1988)
_#_Exports: $16.0 billion (f.o.b., 1989);
commodities—machinery and equipment 60.5%; agricultural products 14.7%; manufactured consumer goods 10.6%; fuels, minerals, raw materials, and metals 8.5%; other 5.7%;
partners—Communist countries 82.5% (USSR 61%, GDR 5.5%, Czechoslovakia 4.9%); developed countries 6.8% (FRG 1.2%, Greece 1.0%); less developed countries 10.7% (Libya 3.5%, Iraq 2.9%)
_#_Imports: $15.0 billion (f.o.b., 1989);